2018 ended far too quickly and we are already in the midst of the second quarter of 2019. Time is always a paradoxical phenomenon I try to come to terms with every now and then. Today was no different as I recollected the months leading up to the wedding. August 2017 feels just like it unfolded before my eyes yesterday as well as on same days it feels like it was a whole decade ago. It was the best friend’s wedding about two months ago and I don’t quite know if I have fully recovered from all the mayhem and chaos.
Indian weddings are such that the pre-events leading up to the big day feels like a wedding on its own scale. Depending on how elaborate you want things to be, you end up spending a hefty amount on all the pre-events when combined together compared to your wedding day itself. The pre-events are largely for your relations (both near and far) to gather under one roof and start ushering in the festivities with more festivities. It’s almost a week long affair the leads up to the big day!
Having felt like going through my best friend’s wedding, like it was my wedding all over again, I have realized relations are to be kept at arms, in this case, hips length. The closer you have them with you, the more the obligations pile upon your shoulders. And sooner or later, it feels like you an organizing a fiesta for them rather than you and your partner. The whole process leaves you tearing your head apart that you begin to wonder if the whole wedding process turned out to be what you had imagined it to be or along the way morphed into something so unrecognizable.
When I think back if I were to redo the process all over again, I shudder. I don’t think I can subject myself to the level of stress and detailed planning an Indian wedding entails. I can’t say much if these “traditions” would change ever, but I think I can take baby steps in ensuring to now get pulled into the wedding mania when the next generation comes along.
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